Expert: Rev C.Brian Ross - 1/4/2007

Question
I debate a lot with liberals-- they think for sure there are errors in the bible-- one of many they point to is this thing with Galileo-- that the church at the time persecuted him because he said the earth was not center of the universe and the earth was not flat.

your thoughts on this?  the church would be the Catholic church.

were there any other churches?  I hope so-- I hate to think the Catholic church was the only church-- the beginning church-- tell me it ain't so

Answer
Hi Jeff.
Thank you for your interesting question - and I am happy to say that this answer will bring me up to date!!
One of the things that we sometimes forget is that God deals with us according to our knowledge and understanding.  We should, of course, always be endeavouring to expand these (as you are now doing) but He does not expect us to know things that we could not possible know!
If you and I had not been taught any differently, I suggest that we would see a "flat" earth (with hills and glens, of course); with the sun travelling across the sky (and we continue to use the terms sunrise and sunset!); the stars on a dome, and all of them equidistant from the earth; and we would have no idea that we are spinning around at some 1000 mph (at the equator).
Since the church was basing its teaching on the Bible; and since the Biblical record was couched in terms that its earliest readers and hearers could understand, for Galileo to pronounce something so (apparently) totally different was, in the eyes of the church, an heretical attack on its own authority.
As far as the identity of "the church" is concerned, Galileo came to prominence only about 100 years after Martin Luther had nailed his famous 95 theses to the door of a chapel in Wittemberg on October 31, 1517.  Although there had been other reformers before Luther (e.g. Wycliffe, Hus, and Tyndale), it is he who is credited with having "started" the Reformation as a major movement.  However, at the time of Galileo, there was no formal "protesting/protestant" church and so the Church of Rome was the only church in the west.  In the east, of course, there was the Orthodox church (Greek and Russian), but that is another whole subject in Church History!!  In the beginning, there wasn't any Church of Rome or anything else (other than local fellowships at Ephesus, Colossae, Philippi, Rome, etc).  There was just the Church - the Body of Jesus Christ composing all who have committed their lives to Him in repentance and faith, and who seek to be obedient to Him in every area of their lives.  That is the only church that the New Testament recognises; everything else is, ultimately, the "invention" of sinful mankind.
I trust that you will have found this to be helpful but, as always, if I can be of any additional assistance, please do not hesitate to get back to me.
Blessings,
C.Brian Ross